The Most Important Heroes Are The Ones Who Can’t Save Themselves

In Animal, Nikkie Rae creates an unconventional hero for a demographic that is largely ignored: girls who are weak.

The main character, Ava, has a panic disorder that is at times debilitating. For most of the book, she’s trapped by a foe stronger than her in almost every way. She is, for all intents and purposes, weak. And yet Ava doesn’t let that stop her from being a hero in her own right.

On her way to steal your girl.

What is a hero, really? Type it into Google and you get a bunch of images of superman followed by various other men clad in spandex. Type in ‘women heroes’ and up comes superman’s counterpart, superwoman.

Both are associated with a pretty conventional sense of strength: muscles, force, and the ability to kick your puny human ass up and down the globe. If you scroll down far enough, you’ll get images of Real Life…